Drawing on relevant literature and a study carried out by the author and colleagues, this article reviews the evidence about children's expressed views on methods used by adults to obtain children's views. It identifies key considerations deployed by children to account for those preferences. Children are normally passive with respect to method…

In a 6-wave longitudinal study, children (Grades 4-6, n=648), adolescents (Grades 7-9, n=1,489), and their parents completed child-adolescent or parent versions of the Children's Depression Inventory (CDI; M. Kovacs, 1981). Using structural equation modeling, the authors conducted latent trait-state analyses to distinguish between a stable trait…

This study examined the factors that constrain the working memory span performance and reading ability of individuals with generalized learning difficulties. In the study, 50 individuals with learning difficulties (LD) and 50 typically developing children (TD) matched for reading age completed two working memory span tasks. Participants also…

A heterogeneous sample of infants with preterm histories and infants born full term participated in a study of declarative memory and rate of encoding, as measured in an imitation task and an examining task, respectively. Here we report the comparisons of the performances of infants born very preterm (27-34 weeks gestation) and moderately preterm…

Rates of dementia in adults with mental retardation without Down syndrome were equivalent to or lower than would be expected compared to general population rates, whereas prevalence rates of other chronic health concerns varied as a function of condition. Given that individual differences in vulnerability to Alzheimer's disease have been…

In this cross-sectional investigation, syntactic development was compared in conversational versus expository discourse in 120 typically developing children, adolescents, and adults, age 7 to 49 years. Each participant was asked to discuss common topics such as school, family, and friends to elicit conversational discourse and to explain the rules…

The phase-synchronization of Gamma-band oscillations has been postulated as a mechanism of "network binding" and implicated in various aspects of perception, memory, and cognition. The current study investigates a possible link between Gamma synchrony and individual differences in intelligence within the theory of fluid and crystallized…

There is a wide variety of factors such as: age, attitude, motivation, aptitude, amount of exposure, gender and anxiety etc in second language learning. These are also responsible for individual differences in learning a second (L2) / Foreign Language (FL). In social Psychology, it is a widely accepted fact that learner's individual differences…

This paper examines the nature of learning cultures in English Further Education (FE), as revealed in the Transforming Learning Cultures in FE (TLC) research project. In it, we describe four characteristics of a generic FE learning culture: the significance of learning cultures in every site; the significance of the tutor in influencing site…

Three interactive tasks, increasing in the complexity of resource-directing reasoning demands on speaker/storyteller attribution of, and linguistic reference to, the thoughts and intentions of characters in narrative stimuli were performed by Japanese L1 speakers of English. Largely consistent with the claims of the Cognition Hypothesis, results…

Purpose: In this study, the authors investigated speech rhythm acquisition by bilingual Spanish-English-speaking children, comparing their performance with functionally monolingual peers in both languages and to monolingual and bilingual adults. Method: Participants included younger children (3;9 [years;months] to 4;5.15 [years;months.days]),…

Background: Despite a large body of international literature concerning the antecedents, correlates of and treatments for test anxiety, there has been little research until recently using samples of students drawn from the UK. There is a need to establish some basic normative data for test anxiety scores in this population of students, in order to…

This paper explores whether the principles of cognitive load and multimedia theory are mediated by cognitive style, gender, and prior knowledge. Participants were 91 children aged 10-11 years (54 boys, 37 girls), each assigned to one of two presentation modes. In Condition 1 children were presented with diagrams supported by printed textual…

Research on fear of crime has evolved to suggest the existence of a complex relationship between individual, lifestyle, and contextual factors. Past work generally focuses on predominantly heterosexual populations; this study examines correlates of fear of crime and perceptions of risk among a sample of 272 self-identified lesbians and gay men.…

"Classroom Assessment in Action" clarifies the multi-faceted roles of measurement and assessment and their applications in a classroom setting. Comprehensive in scope, Shermis and Di Vesta explain basic measurement concepts and show students how to interpret the results of standardized tests. From these basic concepts, the authors then…